/lit/ - Literature

What would Plato would have thought about Girard's theories, especially the Plato of The Republic?

I am struggling to understand the dynamics of Plato's tripartite soul. I often see the tripartite soul translated as:
>logos-->reason
>thymos-->passion
>epithymia-->desire
And, of course, the goal is to achieve justice in the soul by balancing these parts. But what *exactly* are these parts? I have trouble understanding what Plato is getting at.

Are they an attempt to breakdown the otherwise "integrated" mind into more easily-understood composites? Or are they separate drives, each with their own wills? In Book IV, Plato's examples, especially the part illustrating thymos, shows the parts of the soul to be in conflict. Finally, what the hell is "passion", anyway? Is that emotion? If so, why is thymos emotive but not epithymia, given that our desires seem tightly linked to our emotional state?

I've often heard Plato's "justice in the soul" is achieved through thymos allying with logos to control epithymia, but what does that look like in practice?

Best editions for Plato's Republic and Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics? Preferably with explanation by secondary sources so I don't get totally lost